Three US nationals on trial in Democratic Republic of Congo over events in May described as an attempted coup
More than 50 people, including three US citizens and a Belgian, have gone on trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo over what the army has described as an attempted coup.
The actions of the three Americans were “punishable by death”, Judge Freddy Ehume told the military court in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
Continue reading...Warning comes amid visits by Israeli officials to region bordering Lebanon and speculation about an operation
The Biden administration has warned Israel that widening its conflict against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would risk drawing in Iran, even as Israeli officials said last week they had completed preparations for an operation if it were required.
According to an Axios report quoting two unnamed senior US officials, the administration has told Israel it does not believe “a limited war” in Lebanon or a “small regional war” is a realistic option because it would be difficult to end and be likely to spin out of control.
Continue reading...UN secretary general makes plea for nuclear states to agree on mutual pledge not to be first to use nuclear weapons
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the spread of artificial intelligence technology multiplies the threat of nuclear war, and that humanity is now “on a knife’s edge” as dangers to its existence coalesce.
Guterres’s warning is due to be shown on a recorded video to be played on Friday morning at the annual meeting of the US Arms Control Association (ACA) in Washington.
Continue reading...Ex-president determined to destroy independence of justice department if he regains control of White House
Donald Trump is planning an assault on the American justice system should he win re-election to the White House, in which he would seek to destroy the independence of the justice department and turn it into an attack machine for his Make American great again (Maga) movement.
At the heart of his plans is the desire to impose his will on the individual prosecutorial decisions taken by the Department of Justice. The move, if successful, would end half a century of accepted practice that prevents presidents from politically interfering with specific cases.
Continue reading...White House says theme of president’s speech will be democracy as he speaks from Pointe du Hoc
We’re a few minutes away from Joe Biden delivering a speech on the Normandy coastline, where the White House says the theme will be democracy – meaning the president may take more shots, veiled or unveiled, at Donald Trump and his authoritarian plans.
Biden will speak from Pointe du Hoc, a strategic promontory that was a key objective for US forces during the D-day invasion, and gained renewed attention four decades later when Ronald Reagan delivered a notable address from the point. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh:
On Friday, Biden is due to speak at Pointe du Hoc, where 80 years ago 225 US Rangers scaled 35-metre sheer cliffs using rope ladders shot over the top to capture a strategically situated artillery bunker. It was perhaps the most dangerous single mission on D-day, and casualties were severe. Only 90 were still able to fight when a count was taken a couple of days later.
There is almost certainly another reason for the location of Biden’s address, given the US president has an election to fight. Forty years ago a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, spoke on the cliffs at the same battle site, and in front of an audience of military veterans he justified the struggle of the day in terms not obviously recognisable in Donald Trump’s Republican worldview.
Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on, look, everybody knows what’s happened. We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted, across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.
Continue reading...The Infowars host dropped his petition for bankruptcy protection, now opting instead for liquidation of company
Infowars host Alex Jones has asked a court to sell off his assets to help meet a $1.5bn defamation judgment against him and his companies over public comments he made claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was faked.
In a court filing, Jones dropped his petition merely to go into bankruptcy, admitted that he has to pay the Sandy Hook families, and asked the judge to convert the bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Continue reading...US president says sorry for ‘weeks of not knowing’, referring to members of Congress holding up $225m aid package
The US president, Joe Biden, has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.
Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.”
Continue reading...Figures show unexpected resiliency of job market as officials try to tamp down 3.4% inflation
The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, a sign the labor market continued strong amid high interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.
The number of May jobs was far higher than the 190,000 economists had expected and topped April’s gains, when a revised 165,000 jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate rose to 4% for the first time since January 2022, up from 3.9% in April.
Continue reading...Agricultural equipment company plans to move production out of the country in move condemned by workers
US workers at John Deere plants have accused the company of acting on “greed” as America’s most famous agricultural equipment company plans to shift more production to Mexico.
The company – famous for its green tractors and leaping deer logo – has announced layoffs of several hundred workers over the last several months with more layoffs planned for later this year.
Continue reading...Robyn Denholm says electric carmaker’s CEO could spend his time elsewhere if biggest pay deal in US corporate history isn’t approved
The chair of Tesla has raised the prospect of Elon Musk stepping back from the electric carmaker if shareholders do not back the chief executive’s $56bn (£44bn) pay package, saying there are “other places” the entrepreneur could spend his time.
Robyn Denholm added in a letter to investors that next week’s vote on the biggest remuneration deal in US corporate history was “obviously not about the money” because Musk would remain one of the richest people on the planet regardless of the outcome.
Continue reading...California supreme court greenlights project that protesters say will add noise pollution to already dense historic park
A California supreme court ruling will allow student housing at University of California, Berkeley, to be built at the historic People’s Park.
The court on Thursday ruled that a new law enacted in 2023 invalidates the claims by two local organizations that sued the school, saying students living in downtown Berkeley would add noise pollution to an already dense area. The project set off years of protests over the park – a landmark that is a touchstone of counterculture.
Continue reading...Patrice Miller was found dead in her home in what authorities confirm is first known attack of its kind
A 71-year-old woman was mauled to death by a black bear in a Sierra Nevada community in 2023 in what is believed to be California’s first fatal black bear attack, the state department of fish and wildlife confirmed this week.
Patrice Miller was found dead in her Downieville home in November by a Sierra county sheriff’s deputy who was called to the residence to check on the senior after she had not been seen for several days, KCRA3 reported.
Continue reading...Rightwing podcaster ordered by judge to surrender to authorities following conviction for contempt of Congress
Steve Bannon, the rightwing podcaster and vociferous Donald Trump cheerleader, has been ordered to surrender to authorities by 1 July to begin a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.
The order was issued by US district judge Carl Nichols – who was appointed to the bench by Trump – after he accepted prosecutors’ argument that Bannon should serve his sentence following the rejection of his appeal last month by a three-judge panel.
Continue reading...Leaders rally behind Zelenskiy to make clear to Putin that, as in 1944, freedom in Europe is worth fighting for
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron have marked the 80th anniversary of D-day with a rallying cry for support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was embraced by western leaders in Normandy.
The US president used his address at the American commemorative event to send a message to Moscow that the US and its allies “will not bow down” and will “stand for freedom”.
Continue reading...State is considered a high-intensity trafficking spot where ‘cocaine sharks’ may be consuming the drugs underwater
Divers in Key West, Florida, have discovered more than a dozen packages of suspected cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office in Monroe county announced the discovery, saying that divers found 25kg of individually wrapped packages of suspected cocaine that were located approximately 100ft underwater.
Continue reading...President warns at 80th anniversary that democracy is under greater threat than at any time since second world war
Joe Biden has marked the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy with an impassioned call to western allies to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of the “unending struggle between dictatorship and freedom”.
Speaking on Thursday at a ceremony at the Normandy American cemetery attended by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and dozens of surviving veterans from the second world war, Biden drew parallels between the Allied troops who fought to free Europe and the alliance of nations that came together to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Continue reading...Successful maneuver means two US-built crewed spacecraft are anchored to ISS simultaneously for first time
Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule and its two astronauts overcame a technical hiccup to finally dock with the international space station on Thursday, as Nasa continued to monitor two separate helium leaks that have concerned mission managers.
A first attempt at the rendezvous was called off when engineers at the US space agency detected a problem with reaction control thrusters essential to the high-precision docking maneuver.
Continue reading...Hello, I’m Dolly, a stage show inspired by the superstar’s life, will include her classics and new songs
Dolly Parton is heading to Broadway with the musical Hello, I’m Dolly.
The star is writing new songs to go along with some of her past hits and co-writing a stage story inspired by her life – a stage show that she hopes to land on Broadway in 2026.
Continue reading...American says she is ‘sad but determined’ after Italian court upholds her conviction
Amanda Knox has said an Italian court’s decision to uphold her slander conviction for wrongly accusing a bar owner of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher was “unfair and incorrect” and vowed to continue her fight against “this injustice”.
Knox, 36, left through a back exit of a Florence appeals court on Wednesday and cancelled a planned press conference after judges rejected her appeal to have the conviction dropped.
Continue reading...As grim memory of world war fades, many people are anxious amid rise of nationalist, country-first rhetoric
Twenty-two British D-day veterans, the youngest nearly 100, crossed the Channel on Tuesday to mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, representing a thinning thread to the heroics of two or three generations ago when about 150,000 allied soldiers began a seaborne invasion of western Europe that helped end the second world war.
Ron Hayward, a tank trooper who lost his legs fighting in France three weeks after D-day, told crowds assembled in Portsmouth on Wednesday why he and other soldiers were there: “I represent the men and women who put their lives on hold to go and fight for democracy and this country. I am here to honour their memory and their legacy, and to ensure that their story is never forgotten.”
Continue reading...